A Goodbye To Once And A Hello to Gypsy This Week On The Buzz from the Bardette

By Rebecca Usher

There’s a mix of hellos and goodbyes this week in the West End, so grab your tissues but also your excited klaxon.

Last week we said goodbye to a West End favourite- Once. After landing at the Phoenix Theatre in spring 2013, it has been charming the hearts of anyone who went to see this award winning musical. Ronan Keating took over the role of ‘Guy’ in its final months, an Irish busker who falls for a beautiful Czech girl, in a story of love and missed opportunity told through the infectious songs they write.

I saw it last summer and was utterly warmed by this sentimental story, I don’t mind saying the tissues were to hand at the end. Hopefully this wonderful tale won’t be away too long and will return ONCE more to the West End.

It’s also goodbye soon to My Night With Reg. After transferring from The Donmar Warehouse to Shaftsbury Avenue’s Apollo Theatre, this bittersweet story by Kevin Elyot has you roaring with laughter one minute and crying the next. This stellar cast includes Downton Abbey’s Julian Ovenden, Jonathan Broadbent, Lewis Reeves and a flamboyant Geoffrey Streatfeild. There’s a fabulously camp scene which involves some David Bowie and hair brushes… It’s brilliantly heart-warming and sad, set in the height of the aids crisis in the Eighties. They have earned themselves an Olivier nomination for next month’s awards and deservedly so, you only have until 11th April to catch this fabulous show, I am already trying to squeeze in another visit before it ends.

But it is hello to the highly anticipated Gypsy that opens at the Savoy Theatre tonight - it’ll be swell, it’ll be great, I can tell, just you wait – anyone who knows me will be well aware of my complete love of this production after seeing it in Chichester last year. The sensational Imelda Staunton will be joined by Peter Davison as Herb, and also reprising her role as Louise is Lara Pulver, who was an absolute revelation last year. So grab your jazz shoes, and allow yourself to be fully immersed in the 1920s vaudeville scene for a show-stopping, brass-buzzing musical treat.